


Bonus Short: Cold Feet

by veridium_bye



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Chantry Issues, Friendship, Gen, Mages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-07-01 05:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15767124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veridium_bye/pseuds/veridium_bye
Summary: It’s night four in The Emerald Graves. Seeker Cassandra and Inquisitor Theia Trevelyan sit by the camp fire, just north of Villa Maurel. Cassandra finally gets the chance to ask the nosy questions for once.





	Bonus Short: Cold Feet

The greenery was dark and lush around them, new and wondrous for Theia, who for many years would sketch or paint daydreams of faraway places such as these. Laying on her side, legs tucked, she watched the fire crackle and cast flights of shadows on its surroundings. Funny thing, fire. Well, not funny, but something peculiar. Although, she had seen enough of it for a life time. 

“I wonder something. Something about your abilities,” Cassandra said, an elbow resting on her knee, multiple bandages on her arm from the day’s skirmishes. 

“Hm? What specifically?” Theia responded, her voice husky with fatigue, but nevertheless intrigued.

“I know about the pathways of study for mages, but perhaps it is more personal than erudite. Why you do what you do, I mean,” Cassandra rolled her head around, cracking a couple sore bones in her neck tediously.

Theia chuckled in a hush tone. She had been through many phases of her self-discovery, including her powers, her abilities, and what she did and did not like to do. Well, what she’d rather not be able to do, anyway. First it was her family, who had a disdain for any and all ability. Then it was her tutors, who had their own worries and at times seemed to only craft student in their images rather than pay attention their individuality. Templars, who wanted to know to who to blame for the scortched fireplace or the frozen doors. This time, though, from a friend, she felt as though it wouldn’t come back to bite her in the ass. 

“You ask, I’ll answer, Seeker,” she teased, rolling onto her back to gaze up at the abundant stars.

“Why do you favor ice and storm abilities?” Cassandra said, her solid voice had a rare tone of childlike curiosity. 

Theia thought about it for a moment. 

“When I was young, no more than 8 years old, my brother, Tristan decided he would see if my sister’s and my hair could catch on fire. He broke off a candle from the dining hall and lit the thing like a flare. He caught my sister at her mirror, combing her hair, and snuck up behind her. He singed a chunk of it. I still remember her shriek. Tris, you’re banquet meat! She wailed, and wailed. It took months for her hair to go back to normal, because she wouldn’t cut it. Her hair was fair like mine, and the color is coveted in our family. Even if half of it looks like burnt kindling.”

Cassandra scoffed. “Such a petulant child, your brother sounds like.”

“He had foolish phases. Now, he’s a scholar, but he still lacks a certain kind of…tact,” Theia said with a grin on her lips. Her brother was many things, but he was loved.

“So, what happened when he came for you?”

“Well, my sister was older, so he thought I would be easier to fool. He found me in the garden, by our bed chambers. A small terrace with a bird’s fountain. I would go there and splash the water, as if I could cause a great flood if I just splattered my hands fast and hard enough! Hah. But, when he got to me, I was able to see him coming. Candle, and all. I got scared and hid behind the fountain. I heard his steps coming closer and closer, and I closed my eyes as if I could turn invisible.”

Cassandra’s eyes locked on Theia as she seemed to tell a great, epic story out of a childhood memory. How endearing, she thought, to discover such dangerous talents out of something so…docile.

“I thought I was done for, but then I heard something crackling, like the ice thawing on the river. My brother gasped and dropped the candle, and the noise made me look up. The flame on the candle was out. Actually, it was frozen over with ice. He looked at me like I was a demon crawling on all-fours. I didn’t even think at the time that it was me, my magic, defending myself. I was just as shocked and terrified as he was.”

“Remarkable. Did he finally leave you alone?” Cassandra asked.

“He did, for the rest of my life,” Theia replied, a soft yawn escaping her mouth. She shook her head to wake herself up a bit. 

“Oh. I see,” Cassandra looked toward the fire. “I suppose that is predictable.”

“It was. It is. I still write, though. One letter goes to my Mother, and she disperses the details accordingly. It’s best that way.”

“The proclivity for ice, then, stayed with you all this time?”

“Yes and no. I stopped and started, especially when my lack of pyro knowledge became a weakness. I was supposed to be well-rounded. I never enjoyed it as much as I did learning how to freeze entire boulders to break, or strike a tree down with a beautiful stroke of lightening,” Theia’s purple eyes danced with subtle energy. She could still see all the “firsts”: first lightening lock, first ice wall. It was enthralling to be so capable. 

“Some wouldn’t be as jubilant, but we all have paths in life we must give our all too. I remember when we first met, I thought you were a walking explosive with a mouth,” a smirk came from the Seeker’s mouth.

“I thought so of you, too, but look at us now. Dormant as stone,” Theia said, her arms stretching over her head. 

“Stone is anything but, Inquisitor.”

“Valid. Especially when encased in a sheet of ice and whirling through a lightening cloak,” she said with excitement.

“Inquisitor, please refrain from the light show, if you don’t mind.”

“Only in my dreams, Seeker. Only in my dreams.”

There was a moment of breath, where both watched the flames and kept quiet. Then, second question.

“Does this mean abilities are more pertaining to what gratifies you, instead of objective capability?” Cassandra’s chin tilted.

Theia shook her head, lips pursed with care. “Not at all. It’s complicated, friend. You can’t expect such things as magic to be “point A” and “point B” processes. Everyone’s journey is as fraught as being alive is. Just a big, bloody mess at times.”

“But then, where is the line of personal responsibility?”

“When you find it for the Seekers, Templars, and warrior forces of Thedas, let me know. It may be nearby that.”

“Point taken.”

Theia sighed. “I know for me, it was about staying disciplined, and dedicated to myself. I had no one in my corner for…a long while, and I was so young. When I saw ice, when I say electricity come from my two hands, I felt as though I was connecting with myself as raw material. Organic power. I had been taught to hate myself for being alien, unnatural, unwanted, but…everything about my power felt raw and earnest.” The rubbed the back of her head, her hair knotted and dry. Brittle from the cold air. 

“Part nature, part conditioning, those fears…” Cassandra thought out loud.

“It’s part-everything. At least for me, it doesn’t matter. But I knew peers who would beat themselves against standards. Some would kill to be the best and brightest Knight Enchanters one day. Others acted like they wanted the whole world to burn down, roof to soil. Some got to where they needed to be, others suffered for a long time. I was lucky I was in touch with who I needed to be. Not always, but in the end.”

“Would you have done anything different as an apprentice? As a child?”

Theia pondered, and then chuckled under her breath. “If I could, I’d go back and freeze my brother’s hands to his mouth. That would have sent Mother into an episode for a week, though. Worth it still? Probably.”

Cassandra smiled lightly. “Running before walking. I can sympathize. My strategy would have featured more blunt-force-object appeal, though.”

“It’s your style, don’t suppress it,” Theia teased. 

The fire popped with a stray spark, and both the women took it as a reminder to keep noises low while others slept.

“Do you see your views on mages changing since we’ve become friends, Seeker?”

“As much as I understand you, Inquisitor, old habits take long to rest. I feel obligated to a higher standard than heeding the existence of those close to me. If everyone in power yielded to the likeness of one or two friends, boundaries would break down.”

“But, does it then follow that those boundaries which oppress must remain?”One of Theia’s eyebrows raised with question.

“Not at all. There’s…nuance.”

“I wish you could say the same to the conditions of those made tranquil.”

The tension rose, but it was a sorry kind, a bruised kind. 

“We do not have all the answers, Inquisitor. But we do have all the reason to find them.”

“I agree.”

“I am glad you challenge me. Even as I put up a front. We should continue these conversations. I wish more would.”

“And I hope they are paired with actions.”

Cassandra swallowed hard. “Maker, I do, too.”

Theia rolled onto her hip and lifted a hand, opening the palm flat. “Good, I would hate to have things be so…static,” she joked, a spark of purple escaping her hand, gone as quick as it came. 

Cassandra had seen this kind of clever trick from the Inquisitor before. It used to make her flinch with concern, but now it annoyed her like a younger sibling’s chides. 

“Hilarious, Inquisitor.”


End file.
